


Love Was The Top

by fragile_vampire



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Barely Even Sex but definitely explicit, Cabin Fic, Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Feeding, Girls Kissing, Happy Azula (Avatar), Happy Ending, Healing Sex, Hot Chocolate, Huddling For Warmth, LGBTQ Themes, Metaphors, Naked Cuddling, Sickfic, Skiing, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24437356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragile_vampire/pseuds/fragile_vampire
Summary: "Now that she had the woman of her dreams, Azula finally understood what it meant to want, to miss, to desire, and to fear."--Azula and Ty Lee going on a ski date in the mountains, Ty Lee falls into a lake, and Azula must come to terms with her emotions to help her recover, learning the true meaning of love by nursing her girlfriend to health.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 213





	1. Air

**Author's Note:**

> This vignette is set a couple months after my novel, [Losing Infinity](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24403627/chapters/58868464), and set in the same universe. So I recommend looking at that before this to avoid storyline spoilers if you care about them. Also some things will make more sense with the context that story provides. I'm planning on writing more short stories in this vein for this pairing as I work on my sequel to Losing Infinity because I adore this pairing

Ty Lee sat on her princess' lap on a rickety ski lift that ascended the side of a silver mountainside littered with alpine trees. Her cheeks were stinging vividly, which could mean one of two things: either the frosty kiss of the breeze that blew from the icy peak was biting them, or she was smiling so much it made her face muscles numb.

If there was a reason to smile, it was that Azula's arms were around her abdomen and she had her own mitten-stuffed hands on top of them. Going on a ski trip with her very own girlfriend was a fantasy she thought she might never see, and here she was - going on one with the girl of her dreams.

The scenery was a second reason to smile. They were some dozens of feet in the air, and the sights around them were pristine and perfect. The _day_ was perfect. The sun glared between clouds, making everything shine with its brilliant kiss. She was so happy to witness the beauty, and happier still to be sharing it with the woman she loved.

The woman she loved, however, seemed nervous.

"If you slipped out what would happen?" Azula asked.

Ty Lee wasn't afraid of heights, for she knew she had the acrobatic ability to keep herself from falling if she needed to. She glanced down over the edge of the seat. Her feet dangled heavily off of the lift, enclosed firmly in the threads of leather boots which were attached to five foot sticks of polished wood, painted pink and black. Azula's orange-dipped skis hung beneath them, and occasionally their skis clacked together as their legs swung gently in the ascent. Much further below was a slope thick with snow covered with a top-layer slick with ice.

"Well, it's a mighty long fall," observed Ty Lee, her loose lips giving Azula the inclination to suddenly squeeze her abdomen tightly.

"But you won't fall," declared Azula with a frightened voice. Her forearms flexed, shaping the back of the girl on her lap against her front.

"It's alright," she squeaked, "the snow this time of year is really poofy. Or is it fluffy? Well, either way, it probably wouldn't hurt to land on." She ran her mittens along the heavy wool enwrapping Azula's arms. She couldn't seem to make them ease, and she was starting to get uncomfortable beneath their clasp. "Not that we'll find out," she added.

"This is incredibly unsafe."

Ty Lee sighed as much as her squashed diaphragm permitted. She felt stuffed. Her body was covered with heavy layers of satin, and on her head was a thick hood. Her hair piled together in a clump, which made her neck sweat.

At least the vista was breathtaking - well - it _would_ be, had she any breath left to take. The air in her belly was squeezed out, and Azula seemed to only hold her tighter when she touched them.

In a way, it was all very exciting. Her heart beat the way one's heart only can when its sense of thrill is as equal to its sense of security. It reminded her of riding one of those train-like roller coasters they had in the Earth Kingdom. Although, she had a sense that Azula was unhappy, or at least uncomfortable. She had to guess, so she wagered she was regretting insisting that she sit in her lap and forgo the proper lap bar.

"Maybe you should've listened to the lady at the bottom. You know, the one who said we're not allowed to lap-sit?" Ty Lee nudged her gently.

Azula’s mouth made a click and a scoff. "She was out of line! Seriously, who thinks they can tell the princess and her partner what they can and can't do? What was she trying to do!"

"Hmm," thought Ty Lee, kicking her legs playfully, "her job. Or, her former job, since you fired her and made her manager start the lift."

"I don't need people telling me what to do," retorted Azula, her voice waking with unsurety and her body becoming stiff. "It would've been helpful to _know_ how high the lift would be," she whimpered. “Then I could’ve known that this was a horrible idea.”

Ty Lee couldn't understand Azula’s reasoning. So she replied cutely and tried to cheer her up. “For the record, I think lap-sitting is fun. And I’m sure that lady was just trying to warn you.”

"She was homophobic," explained Azula at last, her declaration plainly unmeasured against the circumstances.

"Safety measures aren't microaggressions!" said Ty Lee with a startled laugh. The claim was so absurdly far off-base, and it showed an ultra-sensitive side of her girlfriend that seldom manifested. Azula, who was always so quiet about her feelings, was being _sensitive_. It was very cute, Ty Lee thought, a smile coming to her breathless face.

"It's just - there's so many rules that we have to follow," she continued. "Relationship rules. Arbitrary rules. Rules to keep us apart, physically." 

"You're right," agreed Ty Lee softly, "but this wasn't one of those rules.” She shook her head with amusement.

"I - I guess you're right," said Azula, exhaling and releasing some tension in her arms. Ty Lee inhaled gratefully. She could feel Azula trembling a little below her. She wondered if Azula was easily upset by more things, or if she had some traumatic experience on a ski lift, or perhaps generally didn’t like heights. 

Whatever the matter was, she wouldn't admit it. She was far too prideful. 

Maybe she was just tense from her perceptions of constant homophobia. Or she could be angry, or sad, or hungry, or anything really. She kept her emotions hidden so well, that ninety percent of the time Ty Lee found herself guessing for how Azula felt.

They had been dating for months now, and she wanted her girlfriend to step out of her cage - and if she couldn't, well, she wanted to step into her cage and be with her. She wanted to be free with her.

"Hey, Azula, could you take off my hoodie?" she asked sweetly.

She asked this to distract her, and it worked. Azula unwound her hands from their seatbelt formation and used them to peel the heavy hood away from Ty Lee's head. Her hair relaxed and flowed lightly in the breeze.

Azula's hands tried to return to their protective embrace, but Ty Lee caught them with her own. She held them mitten-in-mitten by her hips and squeezed them tightly, and firmly, and reassuringly until the tremble in her thighs subsided.

"Your ears are beautiful," remarked Azula, transfixed. Ty Lee's chest lifted with relief as her partner spoke her first words of the journey that were paid to love, and not fear.

"Well, they love your lips," she responded, "which is really, just another way to say I appreciate your compliments."

She welcomed the double-entendre. Azula leaned up and in, finding her lips on the side of Ty Lee's temple, softly persuading her mind to pleasure with a kiss. She made her way back along the arc of her skull, leaving a trail of sweet wet kisses in a circle around her ear. The dry breeze chilled the wet spots they left and caused them to sting with urgent memory, begging for more attention, more kisses.

"When we get our skis on the ground I'm going to stick my tongue in your mouth," Azula informed her. These words lingered to excite Ty Lee's ears as her heart beat with burning desire. The crisp wind blew on her lips and rendered them thirsty and cold. Her eyes took in the beauty of the frozen mountain and the vista that surrounded them above the clouds. She was ascending. Her heart was ascending. Hope, thrill, freedom - that's what skiing gave her. But it was also the mix of emotions that loving Azula gave her.

"We won't have to wait long," she said, as the landing gate at the top of the slope drew near. When they entered the drop-off and their skis hit the ground, Azula pushed her forward, and she rode the push down the flat ice to a gentle slope. 

Azula followed her out to a flat area and where she swerved to a stop, and tried to break as well as she could, but their skis collided and they barely kept each other upright by grabbing each other's forearms.

"Well, this is cumbersome," Azula laughed, trying to right her skis and pull them apart from Ty Lee’s. Ty Lee couldn’t help but smile at her awkwardness. Skiing was one thing she was better than Azula at.

They stood a few feet apart, skis crossed and intertwined in a mess. The ice was not helping them stay together and on their feet, and in fact the whole affair felt very precarious and limited. It was going to be hard to kiss like this. The slippery ice and the weight of their skis fought against their union bitterly, and even so - they persisted, and finally their lips met, briefly exchanging wet affection as Azula leaned through her hands on Ty Lee's shoulders.

Their love would not be outmatched by ice. Ty Lee pushed her back upright, and then began to swerve away towards the black diamond they were planning to take on.


	2. Water

"Don't look at me like that."

Azula always had everything, and it meant nothing. 

That is - before her eighteenth birthday. Now that she had the woman of her dreams, she finally understood what it meant to want, to miss, to desire, and to fear. She experienced relentless emotions of a flavor she had never known before, and it was difficult to deal with, even without provocation. Ty Lee’s playfulness only stoked the fires. 

"Look at you like what?" Ty Lee's questioning voice was innocuous and unclued.

"You know," sighed Azula. She had caught Ty Lee chancing coy looks at her, only to dart her eyes away when she returned the eye contact. It made her fume with involuntary warmth. "What game are you playing?"

"No game," answered Ty Lee with innocence. "Looking at you just makes me happy," she explained.

"Well, it’s very inconveniencing," replied Azula, which was the truth - it was a challenge to focus on other tasks while processing a headfull of hazy emotions.

"That's ridiculous," laughed Ty Lee, "we just kissed, and now you're afraid of me looking at you."

It wasn't easy to explain, but Azula knew how she felt. When Ty Lee looked at her, her inarticulate desires stumbled awkwardly over themselves, creating an incoherent mess of wants that she had no idea how to decipher or service.

They were coming to the top of a ski course that ran all the way to the bottom of the mountain and the lake below, and all she could think about was how distracting and dangerous her emotions were.

"Hmm," thought Ty Lee. "I know what the problem is. You think your emotions make you weak."

Azula stood there in the snow, gazing over the massive course below, not betraying her thoughts. The ice became her. It wasn't weakness she was withholding - at least, not in her mind. She was full of fear and love and frustration and lust, and all of it at the same time - well, it could break an emotionally sensitive girl like Ty Lee.

Ty Lee was here to have fun. Azula wanted to honor that, if she could, so she stowed her fears about her own emotion and let on an charming smile.

"Let's just do this course," she dared, preparing to race.

~~~

The course wasn't as well marked as one would hope.

Trees littered the path, confusing which way it was they were supposed to go. Ty Lee led the way, carefully choosing the widest path while keeping a steady pace for Azula to follow. 

Azula was afraid. But Ty Lee was such a good skier, and she was having such a great time. Azula could hear her laughs through the wind. It made her heart swell, which made her worse at skiing, and clouded her judgment. She wouldn’t ask her to stop, or slow down. She was addicted to the sound of her laughter. She couldn’t end it.

But as they neared the bottom, it became clear that they were on no path at all - they had just invented their own carving into the ice, and before they could find a flat area to dismount, they were upon an edge of a snowfront that hung a few feet over the frosted lake at the base of the mountain.

"It's too steep, Ty Lee - _fall_!" yelled Azula, throwing herself side-ways off her skis onto the loosely packed snow. She looked down the icy slope to see Ty Lee slide over the snow and splash into the lake.

Azula acted on pure protective instinct. She summoned a whip of fire using her firebending, and used it to carve a path into the snow, which melted into a waterslide that led to the lake's surface. She slid down in a hurry, but before she reached the bottom, Ty Lee emerged from the water with a gasp and flung herself onto the snow, completely drenched.

Azula was furious.

"Gods, Ty Lee! Are you trying to die?" she screamed with frustration.

"I-I'm sorry... I didn't w-w-want to fall," she managed to say through chattering teeth. Azula placed her hands on her stomach. She was frozen to the touch.

"Well, you fell. Into a lake," she seethed angrily. She could feel her blood boiling.

She tore the girl's soaked parker off her shivering body, and continued to undress her until she was wearing a light shirt on top of her bra and underwear. She ran her hands under the thin cloth to warm her body.

"Ow, ow, ow," Ty Lee mumbled and protested, as she twitched beneath Azula's fiery fingers. Azula put a hand on her mouth, and heat spread from her fingertips, pouring warmth into her cheeks. Once color began to return to her washed exterior, Azula removed her hand and lifted her up to a seat by her shoulders.

"How are we feeling, miss genius acrobat?" she mocked, looking into her eyes with a furious disbelief equaled only by her loving fear.

"I'm super great," she announced weakly. "But also very cold," she said, before sneezing violently.

“Here.” Azula took off her own jacket. It was a little wet from the water slide but much drier than Ty Lee's clothes. She dressed Ty Lee in it gingerly and Ty Lee smiled.

"You're not getting my pants, though" she stated. 

"It's okay. Your jacket is so big, it covers my thighs a little."

Azula would've thought this was really cute if she wasn't so annoyed.

"Let's just get you to the cabin," she exhaled, lifting her to her feet.


	3. Fire

Azula brewed hot chocolate on the stove. In the living room was Ty Lee, buried in blankets, making hardly a sound except for the occasional sharp sneeze.

She was sick.

Azula knew it wasn't her fault, yet somehow she felt incredibly guilty. She felt like she caused it by caring too much, or too little - gods know which. There wasn't any logic to it, and yet somehow she was convinced that she had brought her sickness.

She _knew_ they were going too fast. She _knew_ they weren't on any marked path. But she let her ski on, laughing like an idiot, because she looked and sounded _so happy_ that she couldn't deny herself the enjoyment of watching her.

She bore into the milky brown chocolate in the boiling pot and saw her orange eyes bubbling within it before realizing it was near to overflowing. She grabbed a mug from the shelf and poured the liquid into it.

"You're lucky you're so pretty when you're sick," snapped Azula as she carried the mug over to the living room. Ty Lee's face was pale from cold and stricken with shock. It popped out of a pile of brown and white blankets and quilts on the couch. Her hair was dangly and unevenly dried, and it hung chaotically atop the wet spot it left on the couch. Somehow, it made her so beautifully helpless, that Azula was at its mercy. 

Her heart wanted to nourish and cure the girl. She had no power to protest it.

"I'm the luckiest girl in the world," Ty Lee spoke, her voice nasally and stuffed. _Gods_ , Azula thought, _she must be suffering so much_. Looking upon her desperate face was twofold painful: once from sympathy, and once from how cute it was.

She sat down on the couch by her knees and reached around the back of her neck, tilting it forward gently. "Drink," she said, pouring the rich hot drink down her tongue, while lifting her by the nape carefully.

Ty Lee sucked the hot chocolate through her mouth, embracing the gentle burn it left of the back of her throat. The porcelain of the mug rested against her teeth as she gulped a sipfull down. With her eyes, she pleaded for more. Her partner poured again, and again, and again, and Ty Lee continued to suck the warm, bitter sweetness into her mouth with gratitude. Finally, she closed her eyes, and rested her head back against the side of the couch.

"I have a confession," she spoke weakly, nuzzling her temple into the couch.

"Don't leave me in suspense," Azula responded, placing the empty mug on the table beside.

"I'm not wearing anything."

“Excuse me?” Azula pulled off a blanket slightly in shock - exposed were Ty Lee's bare shoulders. She was actually naked. "Aren't you cold?" she demanded.

"Terribly," Ty Lee answered, blinking her eyes coyly. "I need someone to warm me up."

Azula stared at her with confusion as she beckoned her with eyelash bats. "Well - how? Do I look like a cardigan?"

Ty Lee smiled, and then squeaked out a sneeze. "Who needs clothes, really. In fact, I think it would be better if you took off yours too."

The exact moment Azula realized Ty Lee was flirting with her was always cute. Her face made such a look of alarm as she tried to calculate a reply.

"Don't worry, these blankets are very big," Ty Lee said. "There's room enough for both of us."

"That is _not_ the problem," said Azula, pointing a finger at her accusatorily. "Are you really so thirsty that all you can think about is sex, even when you're on your fucking deathbed?!"

"Mhm," nodded Ty Lee, playing the thirsty bitch she loved to feign. "Give me my one final wish in life," she joked with a performative, sexy drawl.

"You are in no state to chi block me, so that's out of the question."

"I can totally chi block you," insisted Ty Lee defiantly, "just get down here. I'll jab you in the gut."

Azula bit her lip as Ty Lee pleaded with her to cuddle. She wondered if her brain was made of mush, or if it was actually just cum. 

"You are compromised," she sighed, pushing herself off the couch and standing up. She appeared angry, but maybe she wasn’t. Ty Lee had a hunch, and her hunch was that she was flustered. She grabbed Azula's arm and pulled her close.

"Come warm me up or you're being homophobic," she wagered.

This of all things persuaded Azula, who was far more pliable through her well-sorted thoughts than her poorly maintained emotions.

She took the bait. She stripped off her coat, pulling it over her body and lifting it over her hair, then throwing it far across the room. Ty Lee’s smile intensified as her eyes beamed, watching her undress with awe and wonder.

"That's simply not a fair move to use," said Azula, as she finished pulling down her pants, then bending over to disentangle them from her heels. She joined Ty Lee in the blankets.

The word "oh," escaped Ty Lee’s mouth as she felt Azula's naked body pressed into hers and fall between her arms. It was warm - probably as warm as the hot chocolate. Wherever their skin touched, she felt hers cure of its disease and soften into warmth. It was like snuggling a heated pillow, that was also shaped like a sexy woman.

"Too hot?" asked Azula, her voice still thickened by worry. Ty Lee shook her head. It was just the right temperature for her. She pressed her nose into Azula's clavicle, inhaling the heat off her skin. Azula's arms moved awkwardly through the blankets to curl around her body and pull her close enough in that she could feel her breath. Their breasts touched and their legs overlapped. She felt her frigid body thaw from the warmth that radiated from Azula's boobs and her shins were alleviated from the cold by brushes of heat that were Azula’s legs rubbing against them.

She found herself running her hands up and down Azula's body, feeling up her form with her nimble fingers. She was combing it for warmth, but she was also touching its muscly form and _feeling_ it. Her tits pressed into her and her mind became feverish and unaware, so that she didn’t notice the place between her legs getting wet until it was dripping.

Azula looked at her with a worshipful smile, her orange eyes glowing with desire.

"Gods, you're so fucking pretty," she breathed. "I could actually eat you."

Ty Lee moved her hand down to her clit and played with it a little. It was clear that Azula was turned on, but instead of that manifesting itself in horny, dangerous, explosive firebending, warmth was being created evenly throughout her body. 

She was nursing her, and she was nurturing her. Perhaps it was not a conscious decision, but an heuristic invention of medicine that her body was discovering. She was healing her through the fire.

"You never gave me that tongue you promised," spoke Ty Lee, her loose lips and dizzy eyes enthralled in her. Azula returned her look with lustful ambition and didn’t hesitate.

Her lips were on hers immediately, and her tongue entered her mouth, battling Ty Lee's aggressively and then slipping between her teeth. Ty Lee felt her body squirm beneath her. Her tangled legs jerked involuntarily between Azula’s and it was horrible. And it was hell when Azula's nipples stung her breasts with heat. She was sweating. And as they kissed repeatedly, over and over again, it felt so fucking good, that Ty Lee knew she was close. She touched herself again, and felt a burst of juice squeeze out between her legs.

Azula took her mouth back and stared at her amusedly. "That was like tongue-fucking a bar of chocolate," she said, chocolate syrup visible on her tongue as she spoke.

Ty Lee lifted herself up a little out of the blankets. "I'm cured," she declared, and with sincerity - she felt so much better after that orgasm. Perhaps it was simply that her body was so thoroughly warmed. It probably helped that she felt a little high from post-cum endorphins. She sighed happily and looked at her partner with loopy eyes. "You're the best to cuddle naked with," she declared.

Azula let on a somewhat dorky smile and shook her head, laying it down on her chest.

"I want you to be more open with your feelings," announced Ty Lee in a moment of clarity. She looked down at her lover with firm expectation.

At the moment, Azula didn't have any reason for her to disagree. She simply nodded, brushing her hair softly along Ty Lee's chest. She harbored a deep mistrust of her own feelings, but she was starting to see that their strength was not always a fault in her being. If it was by her love that the power of firebending resuscitated her partner so, then that was something worth keeping. It was worth loving.

"I love you," she confessed.


End file.
